Dr. Klaus Schilling

Head of Board

S⁴ – Smart Small Satellite Systems GmbH

Prof. Dr. Schilling had in space industry responsibility in Earth observation and interplanetary satellites before he joined University Würzburg as professor and chair for Robotics and Telematics. He was Consulting Professor at Stanford University 2002-2006, is now president of the research company „Center for Telematics (ZfT)“ and was founder of the company “S⁴ – Smart Small Satellite Systems GmbH”.

His team built the first German pico-satellite UWE-1, launched 2005 to optimize Internet in space. He received many awards, including the Walter-Reis-Award for Robotic Innovations 2008 and 2012, european top awards such as an ERC Advanced Grant 2012 and an ERC Synergy Grant 2018. He was awarded with the Eugen-Sänger-Medal 2021 of the German Society for Aerospace (DGLR), the Global AACII Award in 2022, the Frank-F.-Malina-medal 2023 of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), and the Engineering Sciences Award 2025 of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) for his contributions to technology progress in small satellites enabling self-organizing, resilient multi-satellite systems.